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Tournaments Chess in museums Federation Teams RCF Chess Museum

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News

14 January 2016

Round Eleven Compromise

A close-out review of the Paul Keres Memorial ACP Open from Tallinn by Vladimir

Barsky.

In the beginning lets refresh our memories about the second game day having completed by theEnglishman David Howell taking the sole lead in the Keres Memorial. He is yet another

representative of the "golden generation" of players born in 1990. At the age of eight the prodigybecame famous after playing a blitz game with no less a person than Garry Kasparov and earningpraise from the 13th World Champion. A few years later David played an entire blitz match against anew champion Vladimir Kramnik, making a single draw and landing himself in the Guinness Book ofWorld Records. The author of these lines f irst sawthe famous beyond his years Englishman in 2004at the tournament "Young World Stars" in the city of Kirishi and later even wrote an article about theencounter of his student Ildar Khairullin against David. However, a lot of water has passed under thebridge since then and a talented junior has become one of the strongest grandmasters of England,meanwhile bringing up a very promising pupil himself.

Thus, in round nine the leaders table saw the tournament leader playing against the tournament Elo-

favorite.

Svidler Howell

White gave a poor treatment of the Ruy Lopez game, whereas in this position Black could have

seized the opportunity to penetrate into his opponents camp via 22...Bg4! (with the threat of 23...Be2,

while the rook cannot sidestep to g1 due to getting mated from h5) 23.Nc2 Be2 24.Re1 d5! (the

bishop is defended indirectly!) 25.Ne3 c6. As a result, Black achieves the same setup as in the game

only with his light-squared bishop being deployed actively, thus putting White up against a difficult

defensive task.

22...d5 23.Nc2 c6 24.Ne3 Be6

The black bishop has ended up behind the chain of his own pawns. White embarks on the queenside

counterplay without further delay.

25.b5 Nf5 26.bxc6 bxc6 27.Qa6 Bc7

This is yet another example of Howells playing for the mate and ignoring the loss of pawns exactly

the style in which he won a spectacular game against Jumabayev the day before. However, in this

particular position he had better displayed a "healthy greed" via 27...Rb8 28.Kg1 Qe8 in order to

gradually displace the white queen from his premises. In this case the initiative would have still

remained with Black.

28.Qxc6

Vladimir Kramnik Interview, Part

Two

10.02.2016

Vladimir Kramnik Interview, Part One

07.02.2016

Mark Taimanov Turns 90!

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28Bb8

There is no mate at the end of this line Svidler has thus outcalculated his younger opponent.

Correct was 28...Nxg3+! 29.fxg3 Qh5+ 30.Kg1 Bxg3, and here White would have had to go at length

to find the way to make a perpetual check: 31.Qb7+ Kg6 32.Ng4! (losing is 32.Rxf8? Qh2+ 33.Kf1

Qh1+ 34.Ke2 Qe1#) 32...Bxg4 33. Qc6+ Kg7 34. Qb7+, with a draw.

29.Bxd5 Nxe3 30. fxe3 Qh5+ 31. Kg1 Bxg3 32. Qb7+

It is not difficult to see that the black king has no convenient square to retreat.

32Rf7 33.Rxf7+ Bxf7 34.Qxf7+ Qxf7 35.Bxf7 Kxf7 36.Nxe4 Bb8 37.g4. Black resigns.

Not far away from that table was Boris Gelfand hunting down the black queen.

Gelfand Miton

Despite being up a pawn, Blacks position is quite unpleasant as he features no counterplay

whatsoever coupled with low mobility of his pieces. Although he has a nice shot at his disposal -

21...Re2!?, its rather like hitting the air because following a calm rejoinder 22.Qc3! Black has nothing

better than retreating his rook to its previous location 22Re8.

21Ra8 22.Rxa8+ Bxa8 23.Qc3 Bb7 24.Bc2 Qe5

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26d4

In the case of 26.. .Nxa1 White is winning after 27.Nd4+ Kc7 28.Nb5+ Kc6 29.Nxa7+ Kc7 30.Nb5+

Kc6 31.Qb4 or 31. Nd4+.

27.Nxd4+ Nxd4 28.Rc1 Rxh6 29.Rxc3+ Kd5 30.Qxh6 Qxa4 31.Rd3.Black resigns.

After completion of round nine there turned out to be as many as three leaders, them being the first

top three tournament Elo seeds at that: Peter Svidler, Igor Kovalenko, and Boris Gelfand.

While there is no special need in sharing a lot of introductory words about Gelfand and Svidler, we

should point out that our readers have been recently referred to Igor Kovalenko on our websites

section titled "The Person of the Day." In the past year the young Latvian grandmaster has achieved

an impressive progress in the tournaments, especially in the rapid and blitz events, where his rating

exceeded the level of 2700. Kovalenko is a very practical, tenacious, and a resourceful player with a

well-established opening repertoire. His being charged for struggle and capable of seeking the

slightest chances in even the most seemingly "empty" positions is worthy of respect.

In round three of the Tallinn tournament Kovalenko lost to his countryman and coeval VladimirSveshnikov: having played for a considerable amount of t ime on the 10 second time increment andtrying to outfox his uncompromising opponent in a slightly better position, he ended up losing ontime. This defeat spurred Igor on so that he went on to score 5.5 points in the following 6 rounds. Thefollowing game proved decisive in the contest for the first place.

Kovalenko Svidler

1.c4 g6 2.Nc3 c5 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.a3 e6 7.Rb1 Nge7 8.b4 0-0 9.0-0 b6 10.Bb2 cxb411.axb4 Nxb4 12.Nd4!

White has handled the opening part of the game in a very offbeat manner, which seems to have

disoriented his seasoned opponent to a certain degree.

12Rb8

12...d5 13.Ba3 a5 14.Nc2 Ba6 was leading to rough equality.

13.Ndb5 Nec6 14.Ba3 a6

This is the only move because 14...a5 15.Bxc6 Nxc6 16.Bxd6 is by no means good for Black.

15.Bxb4 Nxb4 16.Rxb4 axb5 17.Nxb5 Qe7 18.Ra4 d5 19.cxd5 exd5

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The resulting position is very unpleasant for Black, especially for a type of game with reduced time

control. While Black has two obvious weaknesses - on b6 and d5, White, on the other hand, features

a very compact pawn structure and a safe king. Svidler defended stubbornly in the game that followed

by launching counterplay on the kingside and succeeding in transiting into the ending with the

opposite colored bishops despite being down a pawn.

20.d4 Bg4 21.Re1 Rfe8 22.Ra7 Qd8 23.Qd3 Re7 24.Rxe7 Qxe7 25.e3 Be6 26.Qb3 Qd8 27.Rb1

Bf8 28.Nc3 Rc8 29.Nxd5 h5 30.h4 g5 31.hxg5 Qxg5 32.Qb5 h4 33.gxh4 Qxh4 34.Nf4 Rc2 35.Rf1

Bd6 36.Qe8+ Kg7 37.Nxe6+ fxe6 38.Qd7+ Qe7 39.Qxe7+ Bxe7 40.Be4 Rb2 41 Kg2 Bh4 42.Kf3

Kf6 43.Bd3 Rd2 44.Be2 Rb2 45.Rh1 Kg5 46.Rc1 Kf6 47.Rc6

Black has managed to hook up to the f2-pawn on the one hand, while not so many pawns have

survived the preceding battle on the other hand. With this in mind, Black could have attempted to

mark his time further via 47...Ke7, but Peter opted for setting his passed pawn in motion.

47b5 48.Rb6 Ke7 49.Rb7+ Kd6

Black must have overlooked the following rejoinder by White; he should have sidestepped with his

king into another direction instead 49...Kf6.

50.Bxb5!

A mate in one threat is in the air, thus leaving Black with no time to reclaim the f2-pawn.

50e5 51.Rd7+ Ke6 52.d5+ Kf5 53.Bd3+

Stronger is 53.Rf7+! Kg5 54.Rb7 Rxf2+ 55.Ke4, and White should prevail in the f inal run.

53...e4+ 54.Bxe4+ Ke5 55.Kg4 Kxe4 56.f3+ Kxe3 57.Kxh4

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57Kf4?

Black blunders while being only a step away from the realms of a draw: after 57...Kxf3 58.Kg5 Ke4

59.Kf6 the simplest is 59Rh2, although Black could even afford himself to miss a move by playing

59Rb3.

58.Rf7+ Ke5 59.f4+ Kxd5 60.Re7 Kd6 61.Re3 Kd5Black resigns.

Howell drew against Gelfand on the second table and, prior to the start of the final round, Kovalenko

advanced into a clear first place with 8.5 points. Trailing a half-point behind were Gelfand and

Ganguly. The fate of the top place was to be sealed in the Gelfand - Kovalenko and Ganguly - Berkes

games.

Alas, the entire intrigue died as soon as 10 minutes after the start of the round: a peace agreement

was signed in the game played on the second table at first, followed by Gelfand and Kovalenko

agreeing to a draw either: Boris obtained nothing out of the opening and congratulated his opponent

on the victory in the tournament. May it be so that the local climate is of that peculiar nature which

has to do with soothing your fighting spirits in favor of seeking compromises? This is, by the way,

how Sergei Dovlatov entitled his famous book about the life in Tallinn. However, something similar to

that has been recently observed in the last round of the Qatar event... Well, we are not going to

further delve into this topic in our present review.

Excellent performance was displayed in Tallinn by the leader of the Russian women's team

Alexandra Kosteniuk who scored as many as 8 points, not only confidently taking the first place

among the women, but also breaking into the top ten in the overall standings. The final tournament

table saw Alexandra and her husband Pavel Tregubov landing into the neighboring lines, just as

befits a perfect couple!

Kosteniuk Postny

The unexpected maneuver of the white knight allows extricating her monarch from being exposed to

mating threats and subsequent pushing of her passed a-pawn in the direction of the coronation field.

45.Na1! Rc8 46.Kg4 f6

Black might have still kept his defensive lines together via 46...h5+ 47.gxh6+ Bxh6 48.a6 Bc1 49.Ra2

Be3, but Postny performance in the time trouble was far from being an exemplary one.

47.gxf6+ Kxf6 48.a6 Ke6 49.Kf3 Bc1 50.Ra2 Kd6 51.Nc2 Bd2 52.Ke2 Bc3 53.Kd3 Bd4 54.Nxd4exd4 55.a7 Ra8 56.Kxd4 Ke6 57.Ra6+ Kd7 58.Kc5 Kc7 59.Rf6 Kb7 60.Rf7+ Ka6 61.Rxh7 Re8

62.Kd6 Black resigns.

I would like to give credit to an impeccable and well-coordinated work of the organizers: each round

would start well in the prescribed time with no overlaps happening along the way. The arbiter would

announce the approaching start of the upcoming round in three languages 1-2 minutes ahead of that,

inviting the participants to take their seats. However, when it came to the final round there sounded a

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super precise announcement: there remains one minute and ten seconds until the start . Peter Svidler

smiled and, holding up his index finger, exclaimed, "Thats it!"

At the closing ceremony the prizes and diplomas were awarded to best girls, boys, veterans, women,

local players and the winners in the overall standings. In the beginning it was Vladimir Sveshnikov

who was on the verge of being summoned to receive the second veterans prize, but seeing how

young the "veteran" looked, his fathers name was called out instead. In the end it will still be Volodya

who is going to get the cash - Evgeny Ellinovich asked his son to leave his ID details with the

organizers. The money will stay in the family anyway!

Final standings:

1st place I. Kovalenko with 9 out of 11 points; 2-4 places: D. Howell, B. Gelfand, S. Ganguly with

8,5 points; 5-13 places: J.-K. Duda, K. Georgiev, P. Svidler, F. Berkes, A. Motylev, A. Kosteniuk, P.Tregubov, K. Miton, A. Neiksans with 8 points, etc.

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Vladimir KramnikInterview, Part Two

Final part of the extensive interview to

Sport-Express newspaper.

Vladimir KramnikInterview, Part One

The first part of a big interview of Vladimir

Kramnik to Sport-Express newspaper.

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2006-2015 Russian Chess Federation

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